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Sam Pitroda - chairman of the National Knowledge Commission - keynoting a major seminar on Higher Education Policies in India, China and the United States organized by the Bridging Nations Foundation in Washington, DC, argued that India's higher education system is under deep trouble. He observed that a "one size fits all" system of education won't work for India because "it's so diverse".

Nor will one tongue fit all, Mr. Pitroda. What's preventing you and your colleagues from recognizing this fact? How can your concern about access to education be addressed when the system requires a billion tongues to be replaced? What is your roadmap for higher education in Indian languages? Hello? Hello? Are you there?

Update: Oh oh. Mr. Pitroda actually wrote a letter to the Prime Minister asking for a billion tongues to be replaced with English. Who commissioned these educationist-apologies to head 'knowledge commissions' in India? God save India from these unscientific men of power!

Our dear HRD Minister Kapil Sibal is at it again. This time, he has summarized the entire body of ignorance that surrounds the use and effectiveness of language (yes, any language), and the concept of National Integration in India. Thus spake Mr. Sibal at a recent conference on school education:

We need to ensure that our children are fluent in all three languages — English, Hindi and the mother tongue — the mother tongue would help in cultural integration, Hindi in national integration, and English would help us globally.

First of all, it is a pity that the false understanding of "national integration" by those who have been ruling us ever since independence from the British is being used as a license to burden children with three languages. During the time of the British, at least, one didn't have to learn any language other than one's own language to feel any more Indian than one already is! It's a colossal waste of time in the most productive years of children to teach them a third language which is nothing but a new set of signifiers standing for the same old objects and ideas. It is a crime against children to teach them three different ways of naming objects and ideas when one way suffices, and when that time is better spent in delving deeper and broader into the beauty and secrets of the world around the children.

Secondly, Hindi achieves not integration, but disintegration of India. Here's an excerpt from an earlier article of ours which is relevant here:

Even if one were to agree, for argument's sake, that learning an extra language over and above English and the language of the state fosters "national integration", why should one of the languages be compulsorily Hindi, a regional language? Why at all should Hindi be taught all over India? To offer formal channels and methods of migration and ethnic subjugation of non-Hindi speakers across India who form the majority of the Indian population? To perpetuate the baseless argument that Hindi can unite people all over India? To perpetuate the feeling in non-Hindi speakers that Hindi-speakers are Indians of a greater God? India cannot achieve "national integration" using Hindi. Hindi can only achieve "national disintegration".

Also, if as a Nation we have decided to destroy the future of our children by burdening them with three languages anyway, that destruction must be mother-tongue neutral, right? Wrong! Clearly, Mr. Sibal and all Hindi Impositionists want to destroy the future of only non-Hindi children. Why? Because by plan, non-Hindi speakers are denied the choice of the third language while Hindi speakers have the choice of picking any Indian language (just because their language has been chosen to rule over the whole of India!). Choice is freedom. Lack of choice is death by suffocation. Why is this death being meted out to non-Hindi speakers? Why are we being made to die by suffocation? Why aren't Kannadigas and Tamils being allowed to learn each other's languages which are linguistically so close-by?

And perhaps more importantly, why has the Three language formula never been implemented in the Hindi speaking areas even 62 years after independence? Why have the futures of non-Hindi children been selectively destroyed and those of Hindi children selectively protected by the Great Indian Nation? And why, again, is the Three Language Formula not applicable to Tamil Nadu? Of course, it is not our intention to propose the destruction of the futures of children anywhere - but if it's being destroyed in Karnataka, we can't help calling for equality in destruction -- for after all, we Kannadigas are not offering ourselves to be selected as guinnea pigs in flawed political experiments of politicians armed with a false Idea of India. If our errant politics dooms us to failure, let us fall united!

Thirdly, it is outright undemocratic to posit one Indian language as an instrument of National Integration in a country where many different language families exist. What nonsense it is to ask a Kannadiga to learn Hindi to feel "more Indian"! If a Kannadiga needs to learn a foreign language -- that's what Hindi is to a Kannadiga -- in order to prove to Mr. Sibal and his friends that he is an Indian, he would need to seriously think if he wants that appellation in the first place! It is utterly wrong to put all those at a disadvantage who are born in non-Hindi speaking states. Hindi is a foreign language utterly useless to most of India, Mr. Sibal. Try to get the point.

The only right thing to do is to dispense with the very idea of using any one language, one culture, one-anything-material as an instrument of India's National Integration. The only instrument of India's National Integration is India's spirituality. Using any "material instrument" is a denial of basic human rights to those to whom that material instrument is foreign. And Hindi is the deadliest of those instruments.

Fourthly, it is a disease of the Indian mind because of which Indian languages are considered good for only 'culture' -- complete with folk dances performed by tribal folks donning coconut leaves around their private parts. No Mr. Sibal, grow up -- languages are bread-winners. Indian languages need to graduate to become fit carriers of knowledge.

Fifthly, it is pitifully implied by Mr. Sibal's statement that all one needs to achieve is 'cultural integration', 'national integration' and 'global integration'. Hey -- you just forgot bread, Mr. Sibal. Do you still want to retain your job? You're failing to understand human resources, you're failing to understand that humans need bread before you thrust on them any sort of integration crap. Any HRD Minister worth his bread needs to come up with a solution for India's bread-problem. Or -- he/she needs to listen to those who do have a solution.

Sixthly, while Mr. Sibal says only something as innocuous as "English would help us globally", there is nothing in his plan or the plan of his informer - Prof. Yash Pal - which considers anything other than English as the language of bread! After all, there is no talk of Kannada as the future language of engineering or medicine or management or what-have-you in the "path breaking" reforms suggested by either the professor or the minister. In reality, Mr. Sibal lacks the ability to elevate (or even think of elevating) Indian languages to the status of knowledge carriers - because of which he has to implicitly assume that English is actually the language of bread in India -- an assumption which destroys the future of most Indians.

In summary, all Indians must oppose Hindi Imposition. Yes, including Hindi speakers - those who care for the whole of India more than the need for them to 'conquer' India. Hindi imposition is destroying us, gnawing at the vitals of India. It's a pity that Kapil Sibals right from 1947 have come to believe that in this destruction lies the future of India. It's a pity that they all fall prey to the same old crap. Oh when will our politics grow up? When will state governments see through this plan of destruction? When will the central government hear the deafening cries of hundreds of millions of Indians being crushed under the weight of Hindi imposition?

Some of our readers who read our posts [1, 2] about Jaswant Singh's expulsion from the BJP asked us to clarify what exactly we mean by 'federalism'. So here goes.

India is a union of linguistic states. These states are, even to this day, ruled with a very strong central government. The states themselves have hardly any power, and the central government keeps key portfolios which should ideally be kept by the state governments. This makes India a pseudo-federal country. We argue that India should become a true federal country with the central government retaining only federal portfolios such as defense and giving up all other powers (such as education) completely to the states.

This concept of India as a federal country of linguistic states is relatively new, and certainly not the 'loose federation option' which Jinnah, Nehru and others had before them. In those days, it was only the Muslim League which pressed for as much powers as a 'federal state' warrants - with other heads of state such as the Maharaja of Mysore simply giving up their powers to the Government of India in exchange for money (called 'Privy Purse'). Of course, there were states such as Hyderabad which had to be annexed to India in a military operation. It is therefore right to say that the federation talked about then was a federation of states carved out either on the basis of religion or on the basis of existing power divisions between different kingdoms. However, the federation we're talking about now - and the only federation which makes sense for a secular country such as India - is a federation of states based on language.

The Congress in those days was against any sort of federation - even the sort we're talking about here - because it was their belief that a strongly centralized polity is necessary for India's unity and integrity (apparently Gandhi himself wasn't opposed to federalism). The BJP, of course, remains against any federation because of their ideology that recognizing diversity is encouraging disunity - a flawed concept. They'd rather bury the diversity and spread the wrong word among the literate and illiterate that all languages of India have Sanskrit for their mother - utter nonsense and conforming to blatant reality avoidance.

The point we'd like our readers to take away from the whole Jaswant Singh episode is this: irrespective of the type of federation, the fact is that both the BJP and Congress have a strongly centralized polity in their DNA. For their own reasons, both want all the power to be concentrated in New Delhi - and that is a serious mistake.

While both BJP and Congress think that concentration of power at New Delhi is a means of ensuring India's unity and integrity, it is high time both come around to question that assumption - because such concentration of power is resulting in a destruction of diversity - which threatens to destroy unity itself. Also, India's pseudo-federal system is coming in the way of the development of the states, and we can't turn a deaf ear to the fact that underdeveloped states have a greater 'ability' to fight amongst themselves and cause a threat to India's unity and integrity. Developed states, on the other hand, behave like adults and have a greater ability to maintain peace, unity and integrity in India.

In a quick move which rubbishes the wisdom of Jaswant Singh who realized - if late - that a federal polity is good for India, he has been expelled from the BJP today. Why? Jinnah is just a scapegoat here. The real problem is the BJP's adherence to its anti-federal stance and a deep-routed inability to learn.

Perhaps this expulsion was clear in this statement of Jaswant Singh: "I didn't write this book as a BJP parliamentarian or leader, which I am not. I wrote this book as an Indian". Gosh - can anybody remain in the BJP if they write books as Indians?!

The question is: Is Murli Manohar Joshi next in the line of expulsion? He talked about India being a federal country in the context of Kapil Sibal not consulting the states before going down his nonsencial "reform spree" of Indian education. With the word "federal" being a bad word according to RSS ideologue Golwalkar, what can help Joshi survive?

What is surprising is - all the dialogue around the book continues to look at India as a religious dichotomy or trichotomy, blissfully forgetting the fact that India is more importantly a linguistic polychotomy. With commercial interests overtaking religious ones even amongst India's elite, neglecting India's linguistic diversity is, to say the least, not a good idea.

Whether Mr. Singh is right or wrong, the fact remains that a federal polity is the best for India from the point of view of stability, integrity and development. It is high time both the Congress and BJP dropped their centralist stance and moved towards building a truly federal India where a handful states aren't licensed by the central government to "goad other states with greed for material prosperity".

Continuing our studies on Tagore, we'd like to point out that Tagore was very clear about the West having imposed on the landmass called India the very concept of "Nation". In his English Writings, he points out (with the disclaimer "take it in whatever spirit you like,") how India has tried to achieve a spiritual unity without any political interference:

...here is India, of about fifty centuries at least, who tried to live peacefully and think deeply, the India devoid of all politics, the India of no nations, whose one ambition has been to know this world as of soul, to live here every moment of her life in the meek spirit of adoration, in the glad consciousness of an eternal and personal relationship with it. This is the remote portion of humanity, childlike in its manner, with the wisdom of the old, upon which burst the Nation of the West.

Clearly, the political unit called India is, according to Tagore, a concept, a Nation, of the West. By West, of course, one has to understand "British".

We'd like to point out that Tagore perhaps makes the clearest distinction among well-known Indian thinkers between "spiritual unity" and "political unity" (a distinction which is woefully lacking in others such as Gandhi and Golwalkar). To Tagore, "Society" and "Nation" were two completely different entities. Tagore defines a "Nation" in the following sentence drawn from his English Writings:

What is this Nation? A Nation, in the sense of political and economic union of a people, is that aspect which a whole population assumes when organized for a mechanical purpose.

However, he holds "Society" to be different from "Nation", and considerably more venerable:

Society as such has no ulterior purpose. It is an end in itself. It is a spontaneous self-expression of man as a social being. It is a natural regulation of human relationships, so that men can develop ideals in cooperation with one another.

Note that Tagore's definition of Society did encompass a political angle to it. Continuing his description of "Society", Tagore adds that it [society]...

has also a political side, but this is only for a special purpose. It is for self-preservation. It is merely the side of power, not of human ideals. And in the earlier days it had its separate place in society, restricted to the professionals.

Of course, by "professionals", Tagore refers to kshatriya-s in our society in the past - whose profession was to protect those under their protection from external aggression. To this profession belonged kings and warriors of all sorts. Tagore further explains what a corruption in these "professionals" leads to:

But when with the help of science and the perfecting of organization this power begins to grow and brings in harvests of wealth, then it crosses all boundaries with amazing rapidity. For then it goads all its neighbouring societies with greed of material prosperity, and consequent mutual jealousy, and by the fear of each other's growth into powerful-ness. The time comes when it can stop no longer, for the competition grows keener, organization grows vaster, and selfishness attains supremacy. Trading upon the greed and fear of man, it occupies more and more space in society, and at last becomes its ruling force.

In the above paragraph, Tagore is alluding to the birth of the concept of a Nation - as seen in the west -- "The Nation of the West". Since it is this very definition of Nation which "burst on" the different societies in this part of the world, it is correct to assume that Tagore is accusing India - political India - itself of becoming the Nation that he so despised.

We will end this essay with the application of the above concepts of Tagore to Kannada, Kannadiga and Karnataka and current realities in political India:

The "self-protected societies" Tagore refers to were nothing but the different kingdoms ruling different peoples in this landmass - for example the Kannadiga kingdoms such as Vijayanagara and the Wodeyars -- which ultimately morphed into the linguistic states of India such as Karnataka.

The Indian Nation formed after the "Nation of the West", which "burst on" such societies is the political India of today, and is an entity organized for political and commercial purposes -- nothing spiritual or cultural about it.

The most glaring example of a society whose "self-protection professionals" turned corrupt and started "goading neighbouring socieites with greed of material prosperity" is the "Hindi society" which has been imposing itself and its language over the whole of India and also sending its members to literally rule over the whole of India.

Of late, the Kannadiga society has remained too impotent to even possess the "self-protection professionals" -- let alone those who become corrupt and "goad neighbouring societies". This is implicit in the non-existence of even a single political party devoted to the interests of Kannada, Kannadiga and Karnataka.

The correct path of reform of the Kannadiga society today is to achieve a re-birth of those "self protection professionals" who do not fall prey to the corruption which Tagore refers to. The correct path of reform of the other Indian societies of today is to do similarly.

The correct path of reform of political India is to ensure that India on the world-stage is not an blanket under which hide and prosper societies such as the Hindi society which "goad other societies for material prosperity". In other words, the correct path of reform of political India is to transform into a truly federal country.

Today, we find it apt to remember Rabindranath Tagore, one of the greatest poet-philosophers this world has ever seen, who in his short work Nationalism, lays out his views on what India is, what India's strength is, what kind of a unity is good for India, and what kind not. Here's an extract from that work:

In my country, we have been seeking to find out something common to all the races, which will prove their real unity. No nation looking for a mere political or commercial basis of unity will find such a solution sufficient. Men of thought and power will discover the spiritual unity, will realize it and preach it.

India has never had a real sense of nationalism. Even though from childhood I had been taught that the idolatry of Nation is almost better than reverence for God and humanity, I believe I have outgrown that teaching, and it is my conviction that my countrymen will gain truly their India by fighting against that education which teaches them that a country is greater than the ideals of humanity.

How wrong it is to assume that the whole of India is one race! How wrong it is to assume that there always existed a political unity in India! How wrong it is to believe Indians have had a sense of nationalism from time immemorial!

How wrong it is to impose a false sense of material unity at the cost of polluting the minds of "men of thought and power" and thereby destroying the discovery of a spiritual unity in India!

How wrong it is to walk around with the flawed thinking that the idolatry of a Bharatmata is almost "better than the reverence for God and humanity"! How wrong it is to refuse to see the diversity of India's languages! How wrong it is to impose an un-imposable material unity by way of forcing Hindi upon non-Hindi speakers of India! How wrong it is to make inhuman laws and policies related to education and employment, those which exclude most of India than include (because of a flawed understanding of India)! How wrong it is to believe that the limited India of the definition of a few is greater than the ideals of humanity - ideals which necessitate the eradication of poverty and hunger in the different linguistic peoples of India!

Yes, this too, shall pass on the way to India's glory.

It will not come to pass, of course, without the efforts of "men of thought and power". Today, let us take a vow to become those men and women - irrespective of our domiciles, backgrounds and affiliations. Let's take a vow to become those real men and women and outgrow the false education which teaches that there exists or must exist a material unity in India - at the cost of its spiritual unity! Let us make that promise today!

Read this message from M Karunanidhi at the unveiling ceremony of the Sarvajna statue in Chennai carefully. Very carefully.

"Let us take a vow to lead the people of both states to live in unity and harmony without foregoing our rights"

'Without foregoing our rights'? Who are "we"? Foregoing exactly what rights? Who decides what the rights of Tamils are and what the rights of Kannadigas are? Things will become clear soon, just wait and see!

Welcome to the beginning of the end of the euphoria that some have expressed over the 'statue issue' - euphoria in the hope that Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are on the verge of solving inter-state disputes. PTI reports on 10 Aug:

Asserting that unveiling of statues of two savants by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was not a "bargain" to solve water disputes between the two states, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said it was aimed at good "permanent" mutual relations.

"The statues' unveiling is not being done as a bargain to solve the water disputes but aimed at good permanent mutual relations. It is being done only with the intention of ensuring friendly relations," Karunanidhi told reporters on his return here from Bangalore where he unveiled the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar on Sunday.

Did you get the point? The very same all-smiles Karunanidhi has changed his color as soon as the air of Chennai welcomed him. This is not "a bargain to solve the water disputes". In fact, his statement displays no intention to solve the dispute either.

Tamil Nadu will continue to press for its unreasonable demands, habituated by colonial largesses during the British era and favoritism displayed by the central government as ransom for Tamil Nadu holding (or perceived to be so holding) the central government's stability in its control.

Any "permanent mutual relation" in which Tamil Nadu does not drop its unreasonable demands is not good for Karnataka. Such relations should neither be sought, nor can be reached by erecting two statues.

If you're thinking whether Mr. Yeddyurappa has been naive enough to not expect this from his opponent, the answer is no. We don't belive he is naive enough. The point is - Mr. Yeddyurappa does not want to solve the dispute either. To him and his government and the flawed ideology of its alma-mater (the RSS), the dispute does not even exist. There is lasting peace. The death by thirst of 5.5 crore Kannadigas is a trivial sacrifice at the feet of 'Bharatmata' - that woman with a sophisticated weapon of mass-destruction we talked about earlier.

Pigeon droppings, pigeon droppings, and more pigeon droppings. It would have been better to avoid inflicting such public disgrace on the two poets!

Speaking at a function to unveil the statue of a Tamil poet in Benglauru, Mr. Yeddyurappa, chief minister of Karnataka is quoted to have said:

All farmers, irrespective of their language, should get water to their crop. Both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Governments should make sure that the crops do not perish for want of water. Thiruvalluvar and Sarvajna’s words should guide us in every walk of life.

Ah - what a stroke of genius! All farmers should get water to their crop. Wow! Hey, if only human beings knew this before today!

Little does Mr. Yeddyurappa know, or even seem to give a damn, about the fact that farmers on the Karnataka side of the border have themselves perished because of being historically cheated and denied their legal share of Kaveri water by the British and now by the Central Govt which is always under electoral blackmail by Tamil Nadu.

To whom must Kannadigas direct their centuries old pain, their anguish, their agony, the cries of the families of all those farmers? To Mr. Yeddyurappa's govt. which treats both Tamils and Kannadigas "on par"? Nobody, nobody with any grey cells can believe that this govt. - driven by reality avoidance - has what it takes to set right the wounds that Tamil Nadu is inflicting on Kannadigas right under its nose as we speak - let alone historical wounds!

Karnataka’s offer to unveil the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in Halasuru, the heart of Bengaluru – in exchange for Tamil Nadu’s offer to erect a statue of Kannada poet Sarvajna in a no-man’s land in a godforsaken corner of Chennai called Aynavaram is an example of how one flawed ideology can end up wasting public money and public attention on private nonsense.

And you thought the BJP govt. will fight on Karnataka's side? Think again!

The chief minister of Karnataka stooping to the extent of saying that he treats Kannada and Tamil (as well as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) “on par” is one of the worst jokes being played on Karnataka today. One questions whether Mr. Yeddyurappa has read his offer of employment correctly! Does he realize at all that he is the chief minister of one linguistic state in India called Karnataka? He is certainly expected to treat Kannada preferentially over Tamil. He is certainly expected to treat Karnataka preferentially over Tamil Nadu.

If his party and its ideology are against the Govt. of Karnataka treating Karnataka preferentially, someone needs to quickly explain why at all Mr. Yeddyurappa & Co. is in power. What are they doing in the Vidhana Soudha if not treating Kannada, Kannadiga and Karnataka preferentially?The RSS / BJP ideology of reality avoidance

Two words can summarize the flawed ideology of the RSS / BJP: reality avoidance.

In this flawed ideology, there is no Kaveri river. Inhale, exhale. There is no Hogenakal. Inhale, exhale. There is no problem which Kannadigas face in Tamil Nadu. Inhale, exhale. Migrant Tamils aren't disrespecting Karnataka by not learning Kannada. Inhale, exhale. There is no PIL filed in Tamil Nadu against Kannada being declared as a Classical Language. Inhale, exhale. And yeah, there is no Kannada, no Tamil. Inhale, exhale. Even if they are, they’re not Dravidian languages. Inhale, exhale. That’s a fabrication of the British. Inhale, exhale. There’s only Sanskrit which is the mother of not just these two languages, but all the languages in the world. The daughters resolve into the mother in the end-game, so all the daughters (who can’t even be considered as existing) – please keep quiet and return to mommy! Inhale, exhale.

In short, there is no dispute, no conflict. Inhale, exhale. There can't be one. How can there be an internal conflict in Bharat? Inhale, exhale. There is only total peace. Inhale, exhale. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, say “OM” and you’ll realize that there is not a single chord of dissonance between the two states. Inhale, exhale. In fact, there are no two states, no border between them! Inhale, exhale. There is one single Bharatmata - a woman in a pink saree with a zari border, a saffron flag in hand who if allowed to speak shall speak in Sanskrit which all of India must understand in order to deserve to be called India. Inhale, exhale. By the way, the lion next to her responds to Sanskrit, too, and can single-handedly ward off all types of enemies - nothing else is needed, just the lion is good enough. It's a sophisticated, swadeshi weapon of mass destruction. Inhale, exhale. It was sleeping when Warren Hastings was casting his eye on her, and hasn't had a wink of sleep after the RSS was founded. Inhale, exhale.

This, in summary, is the reality avoidance on which the RSS is founded, an offshoot of which flawed ideology is the BJP, and whose Karnataka chief is today the chief minister of Karnataka. As per this flawed ideology, one of the parties needs to give up in order to stop “internal disputes” in India so that the India of RSS’s invention remains conflict-free. If the perennial winner doesn't give up, the perennial loser should - in the interest of Bharat. What's the life of 5.5 crore Kannadigas in comparison to the rest of Bharatmata's children? Trivial.

The RSS and BJP would rather suppress legitimate internal protests against the ill-effects of its reality avoidance than admit in public that there is a definite conflict between the two states – a conflict which their flawed ideology prevents from even acknowledging - let alone solving in real terms. So in their ideology, conflicts are solved by denying their existence. Smart, eh?

The message Karnataka should have delivered to Tamil Nadu

Even those who have supported the Govt. of Karnataka in this move can never forget how Tamil Nadu treats Karnataka on the actual diplomatic turf: it sucks Karnataka dry of its rightful share of Karnataka’s own river waters by blackmailing the central coalition government, continues to act like the British used to during the days of the Madras Presidency, objects to Kannada being declared as a Classical language, sends migrant workers to Bangalore who have the audacity to impose Tamil on Kannadigas instead of learning Kannada themselves, encroaches on Karnataka in the border areas (very recently on Hogenakal which is a part of Karnataka), and has in the not so distant past gobbled up large districts such as the Nilgiris and imposed Tamil on the Kannadigas there.

Instances of Karnataka winning or even achieving a draw against Tamil Nadu in the diplomatic game are available only in the pre-British era. Karnataka has been the perennial loser ever after the British set foot on India.

Thanks to Mr. Yeddyurappa's government, Karnataka has repeated the message that we’re once again open to be fooled, once again unguarded, once again not interested in our own interests, once again irrational. Once again, the Govt. of Karnataka has repeated the message that it’s not concerned about Kannada, Kannadigas and Karnataka any more than it’s concerned about Tamil, Tamilians and Tamil Nadu. Karnataka has once again showed that it doesn’t know how to play the game.

Long-term cooperation between two parties is not achieved by only one party making sacrifices. Yet, this is exactly what Karnataka has done. History, where no cooperation has resulted from Karnataka playing the perennial underdog, has apparently been no teacher today.

Nobody seems to understand that if Karnataka has to give Tamil Nadu any message today, it’s the message that Tamil Nadu might have fooled us in the past, but it cannot continue to fool us for ever. This is not the time to talk about the beauty or sanctity of Thiruvalluvar’s poetry – it’s entirely irrelevant. This is not the time to award an ill-treating neighbour by eulogizing a poet from there. Yet, this is exactly what the Govt. of Karnataka has done.

Tailpiece

Q: How come Thiruvalluvar and Sarvajna exist for the RSS / BJP when their ideology is one of reality avoidance?A: They don't exist, silly - both resolve into Veda Vyasa. Didn't you get that? Inhale, exhale.

Q: Then what's this statue business?A: A way of showing that there is no dispute inside Bharat, silly. Inhale, exhale.

Q: How come Gilani and Hastings exist?A: Acccording to the great modern sages of this country, reality avoidance is a universal Vedic principle which applies to entities within Bharat only - such as Kannada and Tamil. Everything else exists and exists to harm Bharat in one way or the other, silly. Inhale, exhale.

Q: Wait a minute, isn't Warren Hastings dead? How can he exist?A: His ghost is still snooping around trying to re-capture Bharat, silly - this is what happens to those who don't drink the water of the Ganga and/or eat beef. He's waiting for the precise moment when the heads of state of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka come to the negotiation table to discuss mutual issues like a couple of adults. And then he'll strike. And then the lion will forget its magic mantra because of a previous-life sin and won't be able to inflict any harm on the enemy. Just read M. S. Golwalkar's Bunch of Thoughts for mathematical proof (we mean Vedic mathematics). Inhale, exhale.

English integrates a trivial fraction of India horizontally but mainly disintegrates it vertically

We have already shown that considering English as an instrument of National Integration is a logical error – the error of taking a language which is good for one thing (bread) and offering it as the solution to another (National Integration). Because of this logical error, English fails in achieving what no single language is ever capable of achieving – India’s National Integration. In this essay, we show what English does achieve in reality, and how that is detrimental to India’s future and India’s National Integration itself. But before we move on, we urge the reader to note that we’re calling English as “good for bread” for only one reason – the pre-existence of a lot of content in the bread-sciences. Otherwise, any language is equally “good for bread”.

Returning to the matter at hand, the glorification of the English language as well as the English elite has resulted in a small fraction of Indians – not more than 5% of India’s population – which has become, as planned by Macaulay,

a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.

As planned, this class has distanced itself from India in taste, opinions, morals and intellect – remaining Indian only in blood and colour (there are examples of even blood and colour getting distanced because of all the international “experiences”)! This is the class which gets into and runs universities, works in and runs MNCs, throngs media-houses, is globally mobile and even gets to become Yash Pals who decide the future of India! It is this class for which all of India’s systems are built, this class which makes all the news, this class which talks about global warming, this class from which emerge the self-proclaimed saviours of the unity and integrity of India. When it comes to universities, this class has mobility all over India because all the universities run in English. Universities in Karnataka prefer an English-educated Bihari or Malayalee to a local Kannadiga who is – as we wrote earlier – criminally excluded from the whole game! Thus, these universities are in reality built for immigrants, not natives - because there are more members of this class outside Karnataka than inside!

This class is spread thinly all over India and speaks one common language – English (again, as planned by Macaulay). You can actually look at it as another linguistic state inside India – a logical state living in the physical states with English as its “state language”. We consider it apt to call this as a “horizontal state” whose people are spread horizontally across the different linguistic states of India. We will use the terms “class” and “state” interchangeably in this context. The actual, physical, linguistic states of India (e.g. Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu) can now be described as “vertical states”.

The horizontal state is economically stronger than most of India and loves to think of itself as the true India – simply because of its pan-India presence (albeit it forms nearly 0% of the population in most of India) and because its geographically dispersed “citizens” are united in the neglect of everything local (including the local language and local people) and one in the upholding of that which is equally distanced from all of India (English)! When a member of this class from Uttar Pradesh is able to communicate with a member from Karnataka in English, both think they’ve just exemplified National Integration because they’ve given up their own languages (which are described as “dividing lines”) in favour of communicating with each other in a common language. Nowadays, inmarriage has become almost a rule in this class – meaning people from this horizontal state do not pick their spouses from the vertical states! A boy from this class from Tamil Nadu marrying a girl from the same class from West Bengal is advertised as a great example of National Integration – because both parties give up their “local”, “parochial” identities in favour of a pan-Indian identity – one which produces children who speak only English and are further distanced from the vertical states.

In this way, English achieves what may be called as “horizontal integration” of a trivial percentage of India’s population – less than 5% – and simultaneously the disintegration of the people of the “horizontal state” from the “vertical states”. The fact that these horizontal Indians form the sum and substance of media coverage blows their importance out of proportion – often giving the message that the “vertical states” don’t or must not exist. It is blissfully forgotten that most of India lives in the vertical states which are disintegrated from this elite “horizontal state”.

While citizens of the horizontal state are well-educated and well-employed, those of the vertical states continue to languish in ignorance and poverty. Each vertical state is characterized by a unique Indian language which is local to it. Empty vessels that they are, these vertical states fight amongst themselves over petty issues and basic amenities such as water, creating a loud noise. Internally, each vertical state is exceedingly corrupt and misguided. The vertical states seem to really possess nothing attractive for the members of the elite horizontal state to be interested in them or their development.

Thus, English has achieved the disintegration of the well-educated and well-employed from the true India which lives in the vertical states. Devoid of the well-educated and well-employed, the vertical states are left without a future. The well-educated and well-employed who should ideally help the whole of India to develop and escape from the pangs of hunger and ignorance, instead turn a deaf ear to those problems. The few among them who actually intend to help solve those problems are so disconnected from the real India that they are unable to understand the basics of engaging which it – of which basics the need to engage in Indian languages and use them as instruments of development is first and foremost.

So here we are in the beginning of the 21st century where India’s most educated and cash-rich citizens are totally disconnected from the rest of India – the horizontal state has built stone-walls around its periphery and made it impossible for people movement in either direction. This National Disintegration is real but eludes widespread recognition.

Don’t get us wrong – the horizontal state definitely increases the GDP of India – but to what avail, when that state is so disconnected from the rest of India? To what avail, when its success cannot be repeated in the vertical states? To what avail, when it doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of the vertical states? To what avail, when it turns a deaf ear to the problems of its own bretheren whom the same land has given birth to? To what avail, when the citizens of this horizontal state in Karnataka actually feel more connected (both physically and mentally) to the USA and Europe than to their own bretheren in Karnataka?

Till now, this horizontal state has done everything that its founder – Thomas Babington Macaulay – designed it to do, except one thing. And that thing is for this horizontal state to actually connect with the vertical states and improve their lot by providing for education in the dozens of Indian languages. The “citizens of the horizontal state” in Karnataka as one Macaulayan class have done everything their maker had willed them to do, except what they should certainly have done, which is to

refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population

and thereby make the bread-sciences accessible to and contributable by the vast Kannada-speaking population of Karnataka. This next step is very important to make – and this is where Prof. Yash Pal and his committee have failed.

Prof. Yash Pal and his committee are guilty of continuing the mistake of pouring in all their efforts and all the funds allocated for the education of Indians onto just one state – this illusive English-speaking horizontal state with a handful people who are divorced from mainstream India which lives in the vertical states – the Karnatakas and Tamil Nadus and Uttar Pradeshes of India. Even if Prof. Yash Pal and Co. had blindly followed what Macaulay the racist expected them to do, they would have invested time, money and energy in thinking about education in Indian languages. But they have failed in doing so. They have failed us. They have failed the people of India. They have failed India.

But India shall not fail as long as the urge to integrate the illusive horizontal state and the vertical states is alive, as long as the importance of Indian languages in the development of Indians is understood – even if by a handful of committed people.

Glorification of an English elite – the case of enslaved men trying to free a country!

Till now, we have showed how the Yash Pal school of thought has implicitly assumed that English is the only plausible carrier of knowledge in India, and has thereby criminally excluded 90% of India and openly argued for the continued existence of an English elite. Everything the Yash Pal Committee suggests in its report is for this English elite – and falls short of even the racist Thomas Babington Macaulay in its appreciation for the scientific fact that India’s education is best in Indian languages. In its glorification of an English elite, the Yash Pal Committee surpasses Macaulay.

While Macaulay posited an English elite because of practical and racist reasons, the sad fact is that the Yash Pal Committee continues with that elite because of what we can only term as an Indian mind buried in the “dreary desert sand of dead habit” – in the presence of which, the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore sang, we can’t reach any real “heaven of freedom”. So we have enslaved men trying to free the country from ignorance!

A flawed understanding of National Integration

We now come to another issue which, coupled with the slavish glorification of an English elite, is preparing India for disaster – the issue of a flawed understanding of National Integration in every well-known self-proclaimed saviour of the unity and integrity of India. The Yash Pal committee is basically the academic wing of of that coterie of self-proclaimed saviours – a coterie which has the ability and power to plunge India into a darkness darker than the darkest darkness known to man.

What exactly is the flawed understanding of India’s National Integration? It is the flawed understanding that National Integration is impossible in the presence of linguisitc diversity. It is the flawed understanding that India’s linguistic diversity must be destroyed by promoting one common language. It is the flawed understanding that the flourishing of Indian languages in education, employment and governance will amount to National Disintegration.

Armed with this flawed understanding that there can be no National Integration without a common language, Indian thinkers have started to promote English as an instrument of National Integration in the 21st century. To them the choice of English is a no-brainer since their own bread is derived from that language – as designed by Macaulay. The problem is, of course, English achieves the integration of only Macaulay’s creme de la creme – not any sort of true National Integration. The problem is that these self-proclaimed saviours of India’s unity and integrity take a language which is good for one thing (bread) and offer it as the solution to another (National Integration) where it achieves the exact opposite (National Disintegration).

Hindi – which was once undemocratically proposed as an alternative to English has been thoroughly rejected by the intelligentsia basically because that language is not spoken by a majority of Indians, is more foreign to most of India than English, is devoid of any bread-related content, and pales in comparison with languages of antiquity like Kannada when it comes to literature. We will not dwell on the related and continuing problem of state-sponsored Hindi Imposition. That is a totally different topic which we have addressed elsewhere. Suffice it to say that those who promote Hindi as the instrument of National Integration take a language which is good for nothing and offer it as the solution to something (National Integration) where it achieves the exact opposite (National Disintegration).

In reality, India does not need one common language in order to sustain its unity and integrity. India is based on the principle of unity in diversity, and wiping out diversity is equivalent to wiping out unity. It is unacceptable that the doors are shut on Kannada in any linguistic register – be it education (elementary or higher), employment or governance (state-level or central level) or what have you. It is totally unacceptable that our system denies a roadmap for Kannada to establish itself in these contexts. Similarly, of course, for every other Indian language. India’s National Integration has to be achieved inspite of these valid, legitimate aspirations of the different linguistic states. That is the true challenge of National Integration in India. When that is achieved, true National Integration is achieved. When these aspirations are suppressed, on the other hand, what is achieved is a volcano waiting to erupt.